Rhino poaching gangster ‘Navara’ locked up for 27 years for Kruger National Park-linked killing sprees
Rhino poaching gangster ‘Navara’ locked up for 27 years for Kruger National
Park-linked killing sprees
Tony Carnie, Daily Maverick
August 22, 2024
See link
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-08-22-rhino-poaching-gangster-navara-locked-up-for-27-years-for-kruger-national-park-linked-killing-sprees/
for photo.
Mozambican gangster Simon Valoi and one of his accomplices, Paulo Zucula,
were convicted of multiple crimes and sentenced on 16 August by the Maputo
provincial law court, sitting in the southern city of Matola.
Valoi, dubbed “Navara” because of his penchant for stealing and then
driving around in expensive 4×4 sports utility vehicles such as the Nissan
Navara, was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment and Zucula to 24 years.
Valoi (47) first gained international attention in 2015 after he kidnapped
German journalist Bartholomäus Grill and Swedish photographer Toby Selander
in the Mozambican village of Mavodze in Massingir District, close to the
South African border.
Grill later described his ordeal in a report on the German news website Der
Spiegel.
The Mozambican news agency AIM reported that the court found Valoi and
Zucula guilty of crimes including “financing terrorism, poaching, the sale
of protected species, money laundering, the use of banned weapons, the use
of forged documents, the sale and purchase of illegal guns and vehicles and
criminal conspiracy”.
Several of these crimes were committed in South Africa.
Valoi’s wealth and apparent popularity as a recruiter of young men as rhino
poachers in his home district appear to have shielded him from prosecution
until he was finally arrested in 2022.
According to AIM, Valoi and Zucula were arrested in a joint operation by
Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) and wildlife
protection bodies, notably the Wildlife Justice Commission.
In a statement on 22 August, a spokesperson for the Netherlands-based
commission described the convictions as a “major blow to rhino horn
trafficking” which was likely to cause severe disruption to rhino horn
networks in Mozambique and South Africa.
On 27 July 2022, Valoi and Zucula were apprehended by Sernic officers in
Maputo after a coordinated operation with the Wildlife Justice Commission
(WJC). During their arrest, authorities seized four rhino horns weighing a
total of 2.9kg.
“Valoi is one of the most prolific rhino horn poaching bosses, known for
primarily targeting Kruger National Park in South Africa. His conviction,
along with that of his right-hand man, Zucula, represents a significant
blow to the illegal wildlife trade in southern Africa.
“This conviction marks an important achievement in the global fight against
wildlife crime. The high sentences given to Valoi and Zucula send a strong
and clear message to those involved in the illegal rhino horn trade that
their actions will be met with severe consequences,” said the commission’s
executive director, Olivia Swaak-Goldman.
She said the WJC’s mission was to disrupt and help dismantle organised
crime networks trafficking in wildlife, timber and fish. The commission did
this through intelligence analysis and undercover investigations, helping
law enforcement secure arrests and convictions, building their capacity to
respond to wildlife trafficking, and holding governments accountable when
they failed to act.
Swaak-Goldman noted that rhino horn trafficking was a form of transnational
organised crime and that Kruger National Park had borne the brunt of the
recent wave of rhino poaching.
According to AIM, Valoi’s arrest in July 2022 came after investigators set
a trap for him.
“Pretending to be corrupt, they provided him with a mobile phone through
which he could contact his relatives and other members of the poaching ring.
“Valoi took the bait and, in an exchange of phone calls and messages, he
activated his accomplices who had crossed into South Africa, where they
killed a rhinoceros.”
These bugged phone contacts allowed the Mozambican authorities to round up
Valoi’s associates. Several of Valoi’s relatives were also detained, on the
grounds that they had assisted the organised crime network. DM